Electric EE.
''The engine bay. 4 batteries up front, along with all most of the major components and a vacuum pump for the power brakes. The major electrical components. The long black rectangle on the left is the speed controller; the blue sliver is the motor (better look at that in a second); the silver box on the right is a DC/DC Converter (works like an alternator, converting 120V from the main battery pack to 12V for the accessories). The motor itself. Jim Husted of Hi Torque Electric painted it blue when he rebuilt it. I like it. I just wish I could afford to paint the car appropriately. The dashboard. It's pretty much normal, except that the gas gauge always reads "E" and the temp gauge never moves. Oh, and the big round gauge we screwed in on the left. It's an E-Meter, or Link-10. It has a bar to tell me how much of the battery pack is left, and a display that can tell me the main pack voltage, the current, the kWh used, or the time left. The seats fold up as usual. You'd never even know it was different from a standard Wagon.
Pick up that rug, though, and you can see the battery pack. There are six batteries here, and a big plywood brace further back under the floor metal where two more batteries once resided. I broke two batteries and rearranged them like this. The blue stuff is pool vinyl, to keep any stray battery acid from corroding the box. Since these are AGM batteries, that should never happen, but it's no big deal to protect it anyway.
Pick up that rug, though, and you can see the battery pack. There are six batteries here, and a big plywood brace further back under the floor metal where two more batteries once resided. I broke two batteries and rearranged them like this. The blue stuff is pool vinyl, to keep any stray battery acid from corroding the box. Since these are AGM batteries, that should never happen, but it's no big deal to protect it anyway.
But in the space where the spare tire used to go, we mounted the charger. This is a Manzanita Micro PFC-20, a very capable charger. It can charge a single battery or a whole pack. It can pull up to 20A. This is how I refuel! In the big pictures, you can glimpse the pathetic little "120V 60Hz AC Only" sticker that I added. I really need to replace the "Unleaded" sticker. ''
Wow. I thought the mileage was good enough. Even crazier is that it was a 4wd model!
edit- I just added all the info that was about the build in one paragraph after an engine picture. But yea, might as well state it's not my car.
edit 2- He replied on the forum with this, thought if you were interested here was some more info.
''Thanks for all the kind words! I'm proud.
Yup, the stock 4WD 6-speed manual transmission. And yes, I had to remove the drive shaft (and, in fact, the entire rear drive train) to fit the batteries under the seat. Next time, I think I'll start with a Wagovan! It'll make the rear brake upgrades feasible, so I can put in more/bigger batteries.
There are some direct-drive electric cars, but they use LOTS of current to accelerate. That usually means big wires, big motors, and big heat. I wanted something ultra-reliable, so I stuck to off-the-shelf parts and modest requirements. I'll let the dragsters do the stress testing and use whatever they find to be reliable.
The cost: I utilized used parts wherever possible; the entire process including the car was around $7000. My budget was $9K, but it evaporated over the duration of the build.
Range: I haven't quite figured it out yet. In an ideal world, I could get 22 miles before I started damaging my batteries. In this universe, I damaged the batteries. I had to remove two out of the twelve, and I'm not sure how much the remaining batteries will still hold. It's looking like about 14 miles.
I'm only using it as a commuter vehicle and grocery getter, and I live only 6 miles from work. I should probably just bike there, but it's Florida and I want something to keep the rain off. And eventually, air conditioning.
Worse yet, I chose the smaller batteries based on anecdotal evidence. Had I gone with the big ones (Optima D31 Yellow Tops) I could probably get 30 miles or more. But that would require suspension upgrades, and I'm not sure where I'd fit them all (maybe tub out the rear). So I guess I lucked into a good decision for my situation.
My wife thinks there's a new battery pack in my future. And who am I to argue with her?If so, I'll probably go for similarly-sized Hawker batteries, which carry a little more lead, and so would extend my range just a little bit. But since I can already get to work, I think I'm going to save the cash.
Recharge: Depends on how big a plug I've got and how empty the batteries are. At home, with my standard 15A plug, I can recharge from the work trip in under 3 hours. At work, with their big 20A plug, I can recharge in 2 hours (ready before lunch, even when I arrive late). I recently drove to a party at a friend's house. His plug was weak, and I tripped his circuit breaker. 4 hours of recharging, including the down time.
I'm still working on it, because when I damaged the batteries, they became severely mis-matched, and some of them get full before others.
It's possible to recharge these batteries in minutes, but you need wires as big as a fire hose! And stuff gets hot, too.''
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Originally Posted by Echonova
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